Sue Reno is a

fiber art Fiber (spelled fibre in British English; from ) is a #Natural fibers, natural or Fiber#Artificial fibers, artificial substance that is significantly longer than it is wide. Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials. The st ...

ist from

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Work

Rich and intricate art quilts reflect her local environment and incorporate imagery drawn from her studies of botany, wildlife, historic architecture, and the Susquehanna River. She employs surface design techniques including cyanotype, mono printing, digital image transfer, and needle felting as the basis for works that also incorporate hand painted fabrics, hand and machine stitching, and beadwork. She was one of the first group of artists involved in the fiber art postcard phenomenon and was interviewed about this topic for the "Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories" project for The Alliance For American Quilts. The transcription and photographs are archived by the

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a rep ...

at the Library of Congress, which is referred t
here
on page 66. Best in Show 2012 "Art Quilts XVII: Integrating a Paradox", award at the

Chandler Center for the Arts Chandler Center for the Arts (CCA), is located in Chandler, Arizona and is jointly owned by the City of Chandler and the Chandler Unified School District. The Chandler Center for the Arts functions as the home theater for Chandler High School and ...

for
Squirrel and Locust
.

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...

displays in the U.S. embassy in Laos from 2011-2013 of
The Organic Garden
and in the U.S. embassy in Papua New Guinea in 2024-2027 of
"The Organic Landscape"
an
"On The Verge"
Winner of the 2013 "Art of the State" Pennsylvania Museum Purchase Award and part of the Permanent Collection of the

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit history museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. It is run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission to preserve and interpret the Commonwealth's h ...

for
Silk Mill #3
. Her piece
In Dreams I Learned to Swim
was juried into the 2015 Art of the State show.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

- In 2016, Sue was chosen by NASA as one of a few artists to visit the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

to view and be inspired by the telescope, and to produce a unique piece of art. It was displayed at the

for three months in 2017. Details on this Art Quil
"Luminosity"
are documented in her blog and can be viewe
here
2nd Place for Craft at the 2020 "Art of the State" Pennsylvania Museum exhibit - Her piece
"In Dreams I Saw the Rift"
can be viewed on her website or on the museum'
Virtual 360 exhibit tour in Area 9
Unfolding the Universe : A James Webb Space Telescope VR Experience - In 2022, Sue was live in the Earth Gallery of this

event; presenting her four artworks
First LightGalaxy AssemblyStellar NurseriesLuminosity
about the

. Metaverse participants were able to virtually view Sue's artwork as they strolled the Earth Gallery and interacted with her. The event was also live streamed on YouTube. Sue is introduce
here

Media

TV, video, DVD, downloads

Quilting Arts Workshop: Surface Design Essentials for the Printed Quilt
- Released in the Fall of 2014, this instructional course by Sue is dedicated to teaching how to create unique fabric using four distinct surface design techniques: Thermofax, cyanotype, collagraph, and heliographic sun printing.

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

Quilting Arts * TV - Sue is featured in three episodes (1404, 1408, 1410) of this show, which began airing nationwide in 2014. A full description of this TV series is availabl
here
A preview of Sue on episode 1404 can be viewe
here
*

HGTV HGTV (an initialism for Home & Garden Television) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The network primarily broadcasts reality programming related to home improvement and real estate. HGTV Dream Home is an ...

Home and Garden Television - A sampling of Sue's techniques are demonstrated in a Simply Quilts show in the episode "Abstract Quilts from Nature". It can be viewe
here.
*

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

- Extensive interview of Sue by Amber Kane. Includes a discussion of her techniques and early influences. It can be viewe
here

Web

Studio Art Quilt Associates The Studio Art Quilt Associates, abbreviated as SAQA, is a leading non-profit advocacy group for art quilts based in Hebron, Connecticut, in the United States. Formation In the book, ''American Quilts: The Democratic Art, 1780-2007'', Rober ...

(SAQA) - Interview with featured Artist Sue Reno "Capturing the light, reflecting nature by Cindy Grisdela". It can be read starting on page
here

Publications

The piece "Tall Blue Lettuce" was on the cover of Professional Quilter Magazine. Other publications have showcased her work including Machine Quilting Unlimited, Quilter's Newsletter, and the book ''Beginner's Guide to Art Quilts''. She was featured in the March 2014 issue of American Quilter Magazine with an extensive interview “The Hand of the Maker” by Marjorie L. Russell and the article “Cognitive Textile Artist Process", written by Sue, which breaks her cognitive process down into steps that other artists and aspiring artists could find useful, regardless of their subject matter or preferred techniques. Her piece "Jack in the Pulpit" is featured on the cover of the September 2015 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited, along with a feature article written by her titled "Environmental Explorations". Her article, "Working with Wet Cyanotype" is featured in the January/February 2018 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited. It's a detailed exploration of this uncommon technique.

Exhibits

Her

has been hung in many juried shows including the International Quilt Festival, Quilts=Arts=Quilts at Schweinfurth Art Center, Art Quilts XIII: Lucky Break at the

, and in museums including the

,The State Museum of Pennsylvania
- Art of the State: Pennsylvani
2013
and 2015 exhibits the Museum of Fine Arts in

Bishkek Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek (until 1926), and then Frunze (1926–1991), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. Bishkek is situated near the Kazakhstan ...

, Kyrgyzstan, the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, the Bellefonte Museum, the Robeson Gallery of

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

and Materials Hard and Soft. In 2010, her solo exhibit, "Transformation: The Watt & Shand Series", received critical acclaim for the chronicling of the transformation of an historic department store into the

Lancaster County Convention Center The Lancaster County Convention Center (LCCC) is a publicly owned convention center in the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. With initial site preparation in late 2006 and completion in the summer of 2009, the Lancaster County Convention Cent ...

. In 2010, she unveiled a series titled "Flora and Fauna". 2012 brought new pieces titled "Ginger" and "Bamboo Emerging" into "The Garden" series and additional work in "The Structures" series of various pieces featuring the Columbia, PA Silk Mill. Best in Show was awarded for "Squirrel and Locust" in November, 2012 at Integrating a Paradox: Art Quilts XVII at

. 2013-2017 featured many additional exhibits. For example in 2016, her work was displayed in Tainan City, Taiwan; in 2017, at NASA's

in Greenbelt, MD and in 2022, at NASA's Unfolding the Universe : A James Webb Space Telescope VR Experience.

Education

Sue attended

Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1787 as Franklin College and later merged with Marshall College in 1853, it is one of the oldest colleges in the United St ...

in Lancaster, PA, pursuing a degree in Religious Studies.

Associations

Sue is a Juried Artist Member of

(SAQA), which features her work. She is a member of the Fiber Arts Guild of Pennsylvania and of the Surface Design Association. She was a former Master Artisan in the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. She was an active member of the PA Arts Experience for 10 years until its dissolution in 2017.

Family and personal life

Sue was born in Pennsylvania and is married to Wayne Reno. They have two daughters, Stella Sexton and Alice Petrovich. She is an avid gardener, hiker, biker and photographer.

References

External links

Sue Reno Home - official website

Sue Reno Studio - official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reno, Sue American quilters Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American women textile artists Textile artists from Pennsylvania Artists from Pittsburgh